Track 2: Does the Diversity Perspective of R1 Institutions Matter for the Workplace Inclusion of Their Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty?

This research "Does the diversity perspective of R1 institutions matter for the workplace inclusion of their Black and Hispanic engineering faculty?" will examine the relationship between the organizational diversity perspective (diversity strategy and approach) of inclusive research-intensive (R1) universities and perceptions of workplace inclusion by Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty (BHEF). This work is vital because the perennial problem of the underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic faculty in engineering has remained unabated for decades.

The scarcity of BHEF faculty often results in a lack of racially congruent faculty-student mentorship relationships for those from underrepresented backgrounds, which is vital for STEM identity affirmation. The project aligns with the Broadening Participation in Engineering Program’s focus on strengthening the current and future engineering workforce by encouraging the creation and sustenance of work environments that promote the participation of all citizens in engineering by "building capacity through inclusivity and equity within the engineering academic experience." In doing so, we will examine how universities espouse and enact their diversity perspectives through their actions at different levels of the institution (i.e., university, college, department) to support their diversity values, respond to diversity resistance, and achieve success as identified through various performance metrics.

This study will examine the black box of how institutions maintain an environment that is comparatively more inclusive than others and what they do that facilitates this success.

The objective of this research is to test the theory that institutions that espouse particular diversity perspectives (i.e., a learning and effective paradigm) will see better organizational inclusion outcomes (e.g., more inclusive work climates) for their BHEF than their counterparts. While most research in the field focuses on understanding the experiences of and problems identified BHEF, the proposed project extends that work to focus on the employer perspective to understand how organizational responses matter for those identified problems in institutions that are rated as inclusive for BHEF.

The overarching research question for this proposed study is the following: What is the relationship between institutions’ (i.e., at the university, college, and department level respectively) diversity perspective and workplace inclusion for BHEF at inclusive R1 universities? To address this, we will conduct a quantitative-qualitative (QUANT-QUAL) mixed method study.

Overall, the purpose is to assess empirical support for the diversity perspective theory to better understand how to improve institutional diversity, especially for BHEF. A two-phase study will be conducted comprised of a national diversity perspective survey to administrators at R1 institutions and a qualitative multi-site case study to identify and understand the diversity perspectives of our purposive sample of six “R1” higher education institutions that have been ranked as highly inclusive.

Based on prior research and the diversity perspective theory, we hypothesize that BHEF’s feelings of workplace inclusion will be affected by their institution’s diversity perspective. Practically speaking, the potential impacts of the research include providing guidance to institutions of higher education and colleges of engineering concerning the value of emphasizing and promoting particular diversity perspectives for diversity outcomes to facilitate inclusive work environments for BHEF and other underrepresented faculty.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.